


Chess and Axes

by silveradept



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Book: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-20
Updated: 2014-01-20
Packaged: 2018-05-15 04:20:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5771056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/pseuds/silveradept
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A reimagining of what the sea serpent attack might have been like on board the Dawn Treader.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chess and Axes

"Argh. How is it that a mouse can beat me at chess, twice?" Eustace fumed. "I can beat everyone at school two times out of three, but..."

Lucy looked at he board and suppressed a smile. Reep and Eustace were well-matched for each other, because Eustace thought he was clever in disguising his attacks, and Reep preferred to bring overwhelming force to his combat positions. Lucy found a better attack in drawing Reep off to one side and then committing her forces to his exposed side, which Reep always brushed off as getting into things and "forgetting".

"Eustace, Reep has been playing chess since we came here the first time. You can't expect to beat everything the first time. Or the first hundred times."

"This rain is horrible, not that the dry was any better. Five days without anything to even look at. At least America would have things to look at." Edmund looked out the window at the rain, which was starting to slacken.

A whistle from up on the deck sent Reep scurrying from the cabin, with the three children following.

"Those things are not natural, Sire." Drinian was pointing at rocks in the distance. "They move." And one did, causing Eustace to shout. Not soon afterward, a head appeared, and the serpent sent a wave crashing against the side of the boat. The coloration of the serpent glittered in the sun, making it hard for the sailors to look at it more fully.

The serpent's tail slapped a wave on the other side of the boat. Caspian shouted for weapons, and some swords and bows were passed around. After a few volleys, it was apparent that arrowheads weren't going to pierce the serpent's hide. Caspian kept tracking the serpent's head, trying to see if it would bite. Edumnd and Eustace were trying to keep an eye on the tail to make sure it didn't make too many waves for the ship to navigate.

Lucy tried to get information, anything, from anyone, but the men were too busy to notice her. "Reep!" she shouted. She watched Eustace swing his sword wildly at the serpent's tail, breaking his sword, but also preventing the tail from slapping Edmund from behind. Then she understood. She cursed herself for not noticing sooner. She had done it to Reep enough times in chess, she should have seen it earlier.

"Here, Majesty!" Reep had his sword out. "This beast means to capsize us with his waves!"

"No, Reep! It means to crush us! The head and tail are distractions!"

Reep looked at he moving head and tail, trying to calculate their attacks, screening out the sounds of the shouting sailors, concentrating, and then his ears heard something the humans would not - the boom of the beast striking the bottom of the hull with its body.

"Aslan's mane! I will inform His Majesty. You find yourself an axe or saw - we may lose something in the process, but we'll keep this ship afloat." Reep started to scurry off, remembered who he had just addressed, and sketched a quick bow. "Your Majesty."

Lucy smiled as she ran for the underneath. The sailors kept their axes with the ropes around the storerooms, which meant having to deal with the pitching of the deck, as well as finding a properly broadheaded axe that she could carry. Returning topside, she saw the sailors pushing on one of the coils, heading toward the stern of the ship, where something ornamental stood in their way. Reep was busy directing the pushing, so he couldn't know what he was up against.

"Zephyr Lucy" was a whispered name in the Narnian court among the horsemasters and the archers, because while they could never get close enough to hit Queen Susan once she was fortified, they always swore they could never see Queen Lucy at speed until well after she'd plunked them repeatedly with her practice arrows. Lucy charged, a bit less of a blur because of the axe she was carrying, let out a cry, and swung true, driving the axe into the ornamentation.

Since the Dawn Treader was made of strong stuff, her strike only went in a couple inches. Still, Lucy hewed at the ornamentation as quickly as she could, but the limitations of the body of a ten year-old girl guaranteed she would not be able to cut it off before the serpent's body arrived. With a final push, and a sickening crack near her, the ornamentation split along the path she started, taking itself and the sea serpent's coil with it back into the seas. Lucy fell back onto the deck, exhausted.

"An excellent hack job, Your Majesty." Reepicheep called from his vantage point. "The lumberjacks would be proud." Lucy was too tired to respond, but smiled weakly as the Treader sailed onward, spurred by a strong gust of wind.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted as a comment on Ana Mardoll's Narnia deconstruction.


End file.
